User blog:Eclipse-AW/Attack vs. Defense, and why you should never lose when attacking.
One of the most frequent questions I'm asked in the game is "should I concentrate more on Attack or Defense?". Although I am a firm believer that you should always have a solid defense, I believe in attack way more. While writing a page for this Wiki, "ATK/DEF to Cost Ratio at Max Level", it was made even more abundantly clear to me that defenders have the worst time in this game. If you take a look at that page, you'll see that I've listed pirates according to their cost ratios relative to attack and defense, but also if they have a relevant skill or not. Even with a quick glance, the number of attack skills beat out the number of defense skills by a ratio of more than 7:1. I realize that the data on the page is incomplete, but this is still an absurd number. It is far easier to find attack skills than defense skills, and even a solid defense team will get turned on their head when enough ATK+ Cannons are added. The number of good defenders is also staggeringly limited. The best defenders in the game (at least in my opinion) are any of the six star pirates (Gearsmith Jorgina, The Legionaire Elsa, Divine Empress Perlina, Battle-wise Athena), Armored Xara, Quick-silver Marcy, Angel Morisa, and Garrett the Truthful. Garrett is the only "easy" one available, six star pirates are of course stupidly hard to come by, Xara and Marcy are one of a kind for any player, and Morisa is super limited in quantity. Marcy and Morisa are over-costed for what they provide in defense (Marcy herself is a super sore point for me, but that's a different can of worms there). Then, even if you can field a defense team full of these pirates, you run into the problem of a lack of defense skills to support them with. What makes it even worse for defenders is Water Bearer Livonah. Yes, I realize that she brings two ATK- Cannons to the table, and because of that her results vary immensely, but on the other hand she also brings 8275 attack power into a fight. Eight thousand, two hundred and seventy-five, people. For 24 points. You can't even find a defense pirate as powerful AND efficient as that. Even the defensive equivalent of Livonah (skill-wise), Lone Wolf Holyn, cannot match her, and is found is much more limited quantities. Did I say much more limited? I meant one per person. And that's if they find all the bottles for her. Livonah can be had in the Jolly Roger Rescue, fairly easily. One of my guildmates has fielded five Livonahs before, and it only costs 120 points to that. That's not to say defense is a bad thing. A high defense keeps all the scrubby wannabes off your bottles and keeps the other Guild from gaining easy wins from you in Guild Brawls. However, any determined player will beat your defense, and there's no way around that. I've had Level 39 players come close to beating my defense, and I'm level 78! Build your defense to a competent level, but don't expect to fend off everything. Use traps to keep your bottles safe. However, the bottom line is, attack like you mean it, because that's what the game wants you to do. Category:Blog posts